In some networks, access points (APs) may be wireless control plane (WCP) managed devices and may not provide standard interfaces (e.g., console, telnet/SSH, HTTP or the like) for device configuration. Access points may discover a WCP using a discovery protocol and establishing a control channel with the WCP device.
Configuration for the access points may be defined on the WCP and pushed to the access point when it associates with the WCP over the control channel. For example, access point profiles can be used to define the AP configuration on a WCP.
A WCP managed device applies the received configuration from WCP with which it has associated. Access points report monitoring information to the WCP with which it has associated.
There are some conventional techniques for determining a location of a client, such as the triangulation method. The triangulation method relies on measuring the signal strengths of clients at multiple access points. A centralized program can receive these measurements from the APs and convert the measured values into estimated distances and the triangulation method can be applied to determine a location of the client.
Further, location tracking applications may be offered by both WLAN vendors (e.g., as an integrated component of a wireless controller) and third-party application vendors. Traditionally, location-aware applications have tended to be server-side applications, which may be used to serve relevant content to clients.
Recently, there has been an increase in the number of client applications, which may benefit from being location-aware. Global positioning system (GPS) receivers typically do not work well indoors. Thus, network providers may have a need to compute and provide location information to clients.
A problem for client applications can be the discovery of a location server within a provider/enterprise network. Static location server configuration would likely not be feasible for many network environments. Thus, there may be a need for a platform independent mechanism for clients (e.g., client applications) to obtain location data in indoor environments.
Embodiments were conceived in light of the above mentioned needs, problems and/or limitations, among other things.